I work as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Eastern Finland. My research focuses on humane sensitivity. I approach sensitivity as a phenomenon that extends beyond individual characteristic, examining its relational and context-dependent nature and its significance in different community, professional, and societal contexts.
In my doctoral dissertation (2025), Human sensitivity: a lost resource in the age of efficiency? The importance of diverse agency on the path to sustainable well-being, I explored experiences of sensitivity as an individual, communal, and societal phenomenon. Following my doctoral research, the concept has been further developed and the English term refined from human sensitivity to humane sensitivity to better reflect its current conceptual meaning.
I conduct my research as part of the Humane Sensitivity Research Group (IHME). I also have extensive experience in teaching and research, development, and project work in the university of applied sciences sector.
I work in the library as a specialist in research data management and open research data.
Currently I work as a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Educational Sciences and Psychology, as part of the Continuous Learning in the Working life (JATKOT) research group. My research focuses on human sustainability in the use of digital technology in workplace learning.
I teach technical craft and technology education to student teachers, with a particular emphasis on safe working practices, creativity, and child-centered pedagogy.
My doctoral research is situated within the field of craft science. It investigates the implementation of craft, design, and technology education in early childhood education contexts.
In addition, I serve as the project leader of the EastSTEAM project, which designs, implements, and examines STEAM education in primary schools in Eastern Finland through the pedagogical approaches of craft, design, and technology education.
I am an ethnomusicologist (PhD), and my research focuses on the embodied, experiential, and cultural dimensions of the human voice. Currently, I work as a senior researcher at the University of Eastern Finland on the “SOMECO – Sonic Mediations and Ecocritical Listening” project, funded by the Research Council of Finland. In my previous research, I have explored topics such as singers’ vocal expression and its embodied listening, somaesthetic experiences of d/Deaf, tone-deaf, and vocally disordered singers, as well as human voice and background music in service industry workplaces. I have also worked at Tampere University and been a visiting researcher at Florida Atlantic University and the University of Helsinki. I share my expertise by teaching writing skills, and by providing training in the Voicefulness® method I have developed. More information and my publications can be found on my website: www.annetarvainen.fi.
My expertise is in the sociology of education, career guidance and critical race and whiteness studies. Issues related to social differences and inequalities in education and career guidance are my main interests. I have researched young people’s educational choices and transitions, school drop-outs and career guidance in primary education. I have also focused on racism in different educational institutions and in relations between pupils/ students.
My teaching and research work is guided by the ambition to explore how guidance can promote to social justice and combat gendered, ethnicised and racialised segregation in education and the labour market. Besides my teaching and research work, I supervise doctoral theses.
The title of Docent, University of Turku, the field of Sociology of education, especially research on educational pathways and and career guidance.
Visiting researcher in Youth Reseach Network
Editor-in-chief in Youth Research
Teaching and research tasks in teacher education
Head of the Aerosol Physics Research Group: http://www.uef.fi/aerosol/
I received my PhD in Tampere University of Technology (TUT, Department of Physics) 2004. After that I continued working as a postdoc and group leader at TUT. On January 2012 I moved to University of Eastern Finland (UEF) to lead the Aerosol Physics Laboratory. I have a strong background in measurement method development and applications related to atmospheric aerosols. My major research questions are related to the atmospheric aerosols: how they form, what are their properties and what is the role they play in the Earth’s climate through their interactions with water vapour. To study these questions in a comprehensive way I have established a wide international collaborative networks and consistently developed our own research infrastructure at UEF.
Major part of my research is funded by EU Framework program (e.g. project FORCeS, EUROCHAMP2020, ERC Starting Grant project QAPPA) and Academy of Finland.
Occupational well-being research, nursing education research
I work as a university teacher at the Department of Nursing Science. My research is focusing on occupational well-being promotion in education. Previously I have worked as a project researcher in research and development project at the Department of Nursing Science, most recently in two projects in the education field. New Nurse Education project aimed to harmonize and optimize the nurse educator education in Europe. Social and health care teachers’ occupational well-being in Finland -research and development project promoted occupational well-being of social and health care teachers through occupational well-being programs for the individual and the community.
Teaching Activities:
Tasks related to teaching at the Department of Nursing Science. Supervision of Master’s Theses.
Website Department of Nursing Science UEF
A New Agenda for Nurse Educator Education in Europe (New Nurse Educator) project
I work as a university lecturer in the field of Special Education. The subjects I teach include autism spectrum themes, mathematics learning and mathematical learning difficulties, and qualitative research methods. Additionally, I supervise master’s theses, doctoral dissertations, and teaching practicums.
My research focuses on the construction of social interaction in inclusive environments and the school, educational, and work-life experiences of autistic adults. My expertise in research methods includes qualitative approaches such as multimodal conversation analysis, discourse analysis, and content analysis.
